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1.1 Million Reasons to Embrace Queensland’s Robot Economy. FAST!

28 November 2018 – In the coming decade, the new robot economy has the potential to transform Queensland industry, productivity and quality of life in ways not before imagined.

That’s the message arising from a new QUT-commissioned economic report jointly released today by Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Minister for Employment and Small Business Shannon Fentiman at the start of the inaugural Future of Work Skills and Industry Summit in Brisbane. Read more>>

The Robotics and Automation Advantage for Queensland report – developed by Synergies Economic Consulting – predicts the state stands to gain up to 1.1 million new jobs equating to a $117.5 billion boost to Gross State Product (GSP) in the wake of rapid, managed uptake of robotics and automation. Click here for full details on a dedicated QUT web page, including links to download the full report and four-page summary.

The Australian Centre for Robotic Vision – a world-first research body headquartered at QUT – first mooted the benefit of conducting a state-focused report following its release of Australia’s first Robotics Roadmap in June 2018.

Centre Chief Operating officer Sue Keay welcomed the Queensland report as further evidence that concerted development of an innovative robot economy, backed by strong government and industry support, was key to Australia attaining productivity growth and maintaining living standards.

Dr Keay said The Robotics and Automation Advantage for Queensland report provided strategic Queensland-specific information that complemented the findings of A Robotics Roadmap for Australia 2018, which earmarked a $2.2 trillion dividend to national productivity by 2033 through increased use of robotics and automation.

“What’s exciting is that Queensland is in a box seat to use robotics and automation to transform not just state but national productivity and quality of life in ways not before imagined,” Dr Keay said.

“The state is already home to Australia’s first hardware accelerators; produces more than 60 per cent of the world’s mining-related software and boasts the nation’s largest pool of robotics researchers.”

Looking ahead, Dr Keay said Queensland was also perfectly positioned to host a world-leading ‘technology cluster’ to further advance development of a robot economy with national and global impact.

“A good example of this can be seen in the transformation of Pittsburgh in the United States, where a cluster of small- to-medium sized enterprises secured $499m venture capital in 2014-15 alone.

“Similar to Queensland, Pittsburgh’s key to success was the existence of a well-established, robotics-focused local research environment, opening the door to cutting-edge innovation, collaboration and investment.”

Dr Keay applauded the Queensland Government’s strategic support of robotics, automation and AI on a number of fronts, including development of an Artificial Intelligence Hub as part of its $650 million Advance Queensland initiative.

“The AI Hub is an invaluable step on the road to developing a vibrant technology cluster in Queensland,” she said.

“Our Centre is ideally positioned to help provide talent and technologies to seed new start-up ventures.

“We not only lead the world in transformational research, but strive to foster innovation, entrepreneurship and new enterprises to advance robotic vision and expand the capabilities of robots.”

Dr Keay said the Australian Centre for Robotic Vision was leading national research and development into the new and transformative technology of robotic vision – considered the ‘Final Frontier’ in creating truly useful robots able to enhance the wellbeing of all people and our planet.

“Robotics is all about enhancing human life in some way – by creating safer and more meaningful jobs; overcoming service barriers to remote communities; reducing healthcare costs; attracting capital investment and reshoring jobs back home,” she said.

“As our Centre celebrates its fifth anniversary, in 2019, we are already witnessing our transformative research being applied to help solve real challenges, not least being the development of an autonomous, vision-guided marine robot to monitor and protect natural environments like Queensland tourism icon, the Great Barrier Reef.

“Other wins can be seen in the provision of healthcare in hospitals and at home; vision-guided autonomous vehicles to improve safety in underground mines and on the road; and sustainable food production via smart agricultural robots.

“It really is an exciting time for Queensland to help Australia lead the way.”

About The Australian Centre for Robotic VisionThe Australian Centre for Robotic Vision is an ARC Centre of Excellence, funded for $25.6 million over seven years to form the largest collaborative group of its kind generating internationally impactful science and new technologies that will transform important Australian industries and provide solutions to some of the hard challenges facing Australia and the globe.Formed in 2014 and headquartered at QUT, it is the world’s first research centre to focus on the critical challenge of marrying computer vision and robotics. The Centre also steps up as the largest expert body of its kind, comprising more than 200 researchers from across Australia and the world. It houses the world’s biggest university-based robotics Lab, across four Australian universities (QUT, The University of Adelaide, The Australian National University and Monash University), supporting the largest pool of PhD students working alongside the world’s top researchers. Further, the Centre’s interdisciplinary team extends beyond four Australian universities to include CSIRO’s Data61 and overseas universities and research organisations including INRIA Rennes Bretagne, Georgia Institute of Technology, Imperial College London, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, University of Toronto, and the University of Oxford.